I was recently rereading my tattered copy of The Quiet Crisis by Stewart Udall, who recently passed away. The last time I spoke with the former Interior Secretary was July 15, 2009. We talked about a letter he wrote to his grandchildren apologizing for not doing more to stop global warming. He told me he was soon to die. I thanked him one last time for all he has done.

The Quiet Crisis was one of the books that influenced me in high school to pursue a career in conservation and Stewart Udall is one of my conservation heroes, so I was so pleased last week to see Senate bill 3248 introduced in the Senate to designate the Department of the Interior Building in Washington D.C. as the “Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building.” This is a fitting tribute to a legendary conservationist.